My Christmas Promo family

This family was the winner of my Christmas Promo Contest. I was so excited to meet them and I think everything turned out pretty awesome. All of their products have been sent away for production so hopefully we will have a really good sneak peak of the actual items next week. I must say their daughter looked "oh gosh so cute" in the black tutu! They will get a ton of prints, cards, a story book and a canvas after the tenth of December. If you want to take a stop by and look at these goodies please call or email the studio. All of the products ordered can be found in the christmas packages.

Here is the sample of their 5x5 flat card.


and here is the sample of one of the folded cards

Madchen Studios Holiday 2008

I know I have been promising this for quite awhile, but the Holiday packaging was revealed this week and I and very proud to post the holiday specials for 2008.

I will be running 4 packages these all include the session and digital negatives and many, many more goodies. If you are a membership customer and already have a session, you will be given a gift certificate for a portrait session (gorgeously packaged I may add) for a stocking stuffer. Here is the link for the Christmas Packages.


As well I am posting card samples. These are not just templates as I custom design everything for all of my clients. These also can be found HERE You will have to scroll down a bit to see them.

This holiday page is a work in progress, but I really wanted to get it out tonight. The bugs will be ironed out as the days go by.

Those of you who have been waiting to see the canvas samples they are also found on the same page...but you can click here if you like, again, you will have to scroll down to see everything.


I want to thank everyone for the patience regarding the wait for these. You guys are awesome and I really couldn't ask for better clients! Happy Holidays everyone!

Congratulations to Megan!

So here it is folks. Thank you for all the entries. the Christmas Promotion was super popular and it was awesome to hear about all of the families. It's nice to now that the blog readers are so kind hearted to one another. I was in the middle of making the video when Oliver decided that he wanted to participate, little did I know that in the end he would do the whole thing. I think I will make him my full time video blogger. He even ad libbed some super nice things to say about the comapany! Man I love that kid! Please excuse the quality, as of today I was unable to locate the HD video camera so we used Moira's canon powershot. (not too shabby for a little camera hey?) Woot! Woot! Canon!

I must say that making this post has given me a whole new respect for video bloggers! My hats off to you for all the work you put into each post. This one took me over two hours and the quality just isn't there.

Congratulations to Megan Willerton who won the draw! I will be in contact shortly and we will work out the details!!

More about Christmas, Fall Portrait Sessions and Maternity Leave

First off I would I want to take the time to thank all of my clients this year for being so incredible. Without the unique spirit in each of you and your gorgeous babies your portraits would have been unobtainable. We all know that it takes more than great gear and a knowledgeable photographer to make a great photograph...you guys are the icing on the cake and I want you all to know it! I was very nervous at the start of the year. When I thought about quitting my career and taking the leap to serve the public with portraits I was so scared...but I have to say you have made it all worth it. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart. You guys have made my heart and soul very happy!

It looks as though the fall is going to be very busy for portraits. Madchen Studios has approximately 4 weekend spots left before November 1. So if you have been meaning to contact me and need a weekend, please do so as soon as possible as these dates will fill as a first come first serve basis. Also I have approximately 6 evening spots left in October. September is completely sold out. If you absolutely need portraits and find that I am booked, please give me a call anyways, I have a few names that I can give out as a referral.

I have the Christmas Packages almost finished! I hope to post those by Tuesday. Madchen Studios is very proud of the XMAS 2008 Cards and packages as there are some fantastic savings and even better yet, some major one stop shopping, so all of you can "knock" a bunch of people off your "I don't know what to get them" shopping list!

My "maternity leave"
Ok we all know I am not going to be taking a real maternity leave, I am just going to slow things down. Here's the deal. I will be closed to the general public Officially November 12-Jan26. This means that I will not be taking single session new clients during that time. However I will still be scheduling my membership customers until November 30. Membership information can be found HERE I do still want to encourage my clients to give me a call if any of my writing confuses you or if you have any questions. Please know that I am available to answer any questions or concerns you may have about my so called "maternity leave"

So What's the deal with Christmas 2008?--Free photos

It's getting to the point and time where I am designing Christmas packages. There are tons of goodies and gifts to put together to make shopping way easier on my clients. So here's the deal, I need a family to do a super early christmas shoot so that I can send away for all of these goodies to show everyone as samples of the packages that I am offering for this years christmas season. So here's the deal I am going to give a way a free christmas shoot. Not only that I am also going to give all of the goodies that comes in their packages to them after December 10 as my gift to them for letting me use these items as display and samples. Sounds pretty cool hey? Okay here's how we are going to do it.
Here are the Rules

1. The family must be nominated by someone (if you really want to nominate yourself, have your friend do it!)
2. They must know that you nominated them. Hey I don't want to be some crazy photographer stalker phoning random people about free photos
3. The family must contain between 3 and 6 members
4. They must live in Medicine Hat. That may seem unfair, but I will be nine months pregnant by the time this is all done, and I am sure we don't want me running around alberta delivering photos in the snow.
5. They must be available October 5 for a two hour Christmas shoot
6. They must be willing to allow me to use their images for Holiday Promotions for the Christmas season of 2008

Ok, we got the rules down now here's how to do it.
Shoot me an email, click on
Rachel@madchenstudios.com nominate your friend and give them a call to let them know you are doing. In your email be sure to include:
1 Their Name
2. Their Phone number
3. Their Email Address
4. How many there are in their family
5. And just a little bit of information about them.

Then on October 1 I will do a live draw in the afternoon and give them a ring to let them know the details of their shoot. That's it, that's easy!

The list of things they will receive when all of this is over will be

A canvas to hang It will be one 16x20 or two 8x10's, depending on a variety of factors,
Prints (Everything form Wallets to 8x10's
Over 50 Christmas Cards (They will get some of these early so we don't mess up the cards getting to people on time!)
A photo session Story book
Cd of their session with Printable Digital Negatives. (they can go and print more photos if they like at the lab of their choice!)

So the package value is well over 400.00. So if you nominate someone you should mention that it would only be fair if they nominate you back in return. lol...it's all about being a good "neighbor" Christmas

If you have any questions please leave a comment in the comment box and I will answer all of them there so everyone can read the answers to the questions I didn't make clear. That's it, Good luck and I hope to hear from you soon!!

New Christmas Cards

This Christmas the studio took the bull by the horns and produced some very pretty christmas cards. The First one is one I made up for my brother and the Second one is the one my family gave out this year. Enjoy!

my other pride and Joy

Last night I did a quick photo shoot for my brother and his children...(my other pride and Joy). This was the first time he had to organize and arrange his own christmas card photos. I must say that he did really well. I only know a handful of dads that are able to dress up and get their kids to a photo shoot on time!

The Selwood Family 2007

I am so lucky to have friends like these ones. For reasons that will remain a secret (right guys?) they didn't get their photos last year. This year however, they gave it another go and we got some really cute shots. I tell you it's a lot of fun to get 5 people looking and smiling one way (at me) in such an enclosed space. Thank you Selwood Family for everything this year!